Story+1984-08-25+Largo,+MD

´´Oh, thanks.....this is a song....about....I guess, family and about duty.....it´s hard to know what the right thing to do is....when it comes to the people you love all the time.....”
 * 25.08.84 Largo, MD, intro to ´Highway Patrolman´**

´´Thanks.....this is uh....this is a song about kind of the rise and fall of relationships...you know, how when you, when you first meet somebody and you´re holding hands all the time everywhere you go and you´re kissing ´em all the time....and like whatever they do is fine, you know, whatever they wear, it´s like ´Oh honey, you look so beautiful tonight´ and like, it´s like....you know, if you´re gonna go to the movies, it´s like ´Oh honey, what do you wanna see ?´ ´Oh, I don´t care, whatever you wanna see´....and....(?) if you wanna go out, ´Oh honey, do you wanna go out or stay home ?´ ´Oh, I don´t care, honey, as long as I´m with you´....all that....and then about six months later it´s like ´No, I wanna go see The Road Warrior´ ´No, I wanna go see Kramer Vs.Kramer´....´Do you have to go out wearing that shirt ?´ and ´Can´t we go out tonight ? I´m sick of staying home looking at your face´....”
 * 25.08.84 Largo, MD, intro to ´I´m Goin´Down´**

´´Now, this song, this is a song about....oh....many things, many things but mainly it´s about ....kind of getting older, about old times....and the older you get, the more old times you got ....that makes sense.....now I got my share....now the Big Man, he´s got more than me.....but he wears his a little bit better (chuckles)....I think....you see, I was watching this ´Twilight Zone´ the other night and it was the one about the actor who thinks he had such a great time way back when he was young and....and so he just sits around moping about it all the time, about how nice everything was then and then all of a sudden (plays a bit of ´Outer Limits´) yeah, he goes into The Twilight Zone....and he goes back into the Twilight Zone and finds out it wasn´t as great as he thought and then he comes back and he lives his life kind of in the present day....now....what happens is when I go out.....and I go into some bar, there´s always somebody who comes up....says they remember me when we were in high school and about what a great time I had in high school....how much fun everybody was having and those were the good old days and whatever happened to that....well, I had a terrible time in high school ....I hated high school....I was bad at my studies, I was bad at sports, I was bad at....I got a little better at that one with time (chuckles)(?)....practise, practise, practise (chuckles) anyway....here´s one for the old-timers....”
 * 25.08.84 Largo, MD, intro to ´Glory Days´**

´´Thanks....yeah....this is.....when I grew up, I had a bedroom that was kind of out over the backyard.....and uh....I always remember the first sound I´d hear in the morning would be.... my dad opening up the hood to one of the....old cars he used to buy, try to get it started to go to work....I remember we used to get real excited about....about once a year my dad would say ´Oh, we´re gonna go down, go down to the lot and pick out a car´....anything around 100 dollars would do (chuckles) and me and my sister, we used to beg him to get a convertible all the time....we used to.....we used to want that convertible so bad and I know that inside, I know that my old man, he was, he was a convertible-kind-of guy (chuckles) but he was, but he got stuck in a hardtop somehow....for most of his life and uh.....we´d go down there and he´d always look at one, end up coming home with a Rambler or something (?)(chuckles) ....my sister, we used to, the only way we used to be able get him back was we found, we found the exact spot in the backseat where when he was driving, no matter what we did, he couldn´t reach us....until we got home (chuckles).....”
 * 25.08.84 Largo, MD, intro to ´Used Cars´**

´´Yeah....this is a song that, uh.....when I was.....I grew up in this small town called Freehold, wasn´t too many people....and....I lived by this park.....and uh....and in this park there was this monument, I can remember when my mother used to ask me ´Where you going ?´, you know we´d be going out to play, I´d say ´Well, we´re gonna go over, go over by the monument´, I grew up all around there when I was, I guess, six, seven, eight years old....and uh, then I got in my first band and we had to get our publicity pictures taken and uh....we went down to this Englishtown auction and we got these phony, like, uh, snakeskin vests and frilly shirts like the Kinks used to wear and uh....we went down to this monument and you know we struck all our poses and, you know, you had to have, uh, you couldn´t smile, if you smiled, the picture was no good (chuckles) you had to stay cool so....it was funny ´cause I grew up all around this, this monument and I realised that I didn´t know what it was a monument to till I was in my teens....and uh, ended up there was a Revolutionary War battle, was fought just outside my hometown....and uh....I remember the drummer in my first band, I remember he came in one day and he´d enlisted in the marines....and....he was sent to Vietnam....and before, uh, before I started this tour, I came down here to, to Washington and I went and I saw the.....I went, I saw the Lincoln Memorial....and I went down, went over and saw the Vietnam Veterans Memorial....and uh.....I found his name in that stone there..... uh, I guess it´s important to know....it´s funny sometimes that in a, in a country where we revive the styles of the past so much and sometimes we don´t, we don´t understand the meaning of the past, it seems, and uh....I guess that´s what the monument´s for, the monument´s there so that you, so that you always remember....”
 * 25.08.84 Largo, MD, intro to ´My Hometown´**

´´Thanks (crowd ´bruces´) here I am (chuckles) oh, thank you (chuckles) thanks a lot, oh..... yeah, thank you, this is....this is a song about trying....to find something that you can hold on to....things pass so quickly....I guess, uh.....I know when I was going through my own hard times, some of the....I guess I was lucky to have some real good friends and....one of ´em, one of ´em´s got a new album out called ´Voice of America´....which is really, it´s really, uh, just a real good and a real important record, if you haven´t heard it, you should take a listen to it....and so this is for Little Steven wherever he may be tonight.....”
 * 25.08.84 Largo, MD, intro to ´No Surrender´**

´´Now, this is a song....about the conflict between worldly things and spiritual health.... between the desires of the flesh.....and spiritual ecstasy....between the cynics and the sceptics and the true believers, now what I wanna know tonight is....if some of you happen to, and I hope that this doesn´t occur, if you happen to die during the show due to the excitement, how many of you think you´re going to heaven ? (cheers) now....how many of you think that if you should pass away during the final moments due to the heart failure or other, some other fatal illness that it´s possible that you´re gonna take the down elevator ? (cheers) now, me personally....I know I´m gonna go to heaven....my mother told me and my mother never lies ....she told me that I´d have to get used to living without the band but (chuckles) anyway, in the beginning there was a Garden of Eden, there was a man, there was a woman, there was an apple, there was temptation, there was sin and parked curbside there was a pink Cadillac ....”
 * 25.08.84 Largo, MD, intro to ´Pink Cadillac´**

´´I remember....I remember that you swore on it....I remember that you said that, that if I got out first....if I got out first, I´d help you and if you got out first, you´d help me....and we swore on it....and we swore on it....and we swore that it´d be forever and forever and forever .....and then you said it wasn´t nothing but a promise....you said it was just....just a promise ....”
 * 25.08.84 Largo, MD, middle of ´Backstreets´**

´´Ok....ladies, gentlemen....children of all ages....it is now my honor....my duty....my responsobility to introduce to you the world-famous members of the E Street Band....I would like to begin to my far left....a gentleman who gave up a scholarship to Harvard University .....where he was going for his Master´s in unusual sexual practises, to tour with the E Street Band in 1984....the most intelligent member of the band, you may have read his studies, his theory of promiscuity, his study on the lost tribes of Hoboken, the only member of the band with a full, complete high school diploma, the dedicated, the educated Professor Roy Bittan on the piano....and on the vocals, an alumni of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, the lovely Miss Patti Scialfa....on the bass, the man that brings you the thunder from down under, who puts the bass in your face, his mother was a Tallent, his father was a Tallent, Mr.Garry W.Tallent on the bass guitar....on the drums, the man who makes the beat to get you out of your seat and move your feet....author of The Big Beat, the Mighty Max Weinberg on the drums....and now, next, we have a gentleman who´s celebrating his 15th anniversary as a member of the E Street Band.....and to show my gratitude for his dedication, bring out the gifts....Danny, for 15 years of pleasure, I present you with a portable hairdryer....and two tickets to tonight´s show, thank you, on the organ, Phantom Dan Federici....and next on the guitar, a man as sweet as life itself.....a hometown boy....drumroll, please....Mr.Nils Lofgren (Nils does his stunt on a trampoline)....and next....a gentleman for whom there are no words to describe so gimme a C-L-A-R-E-N-C-E, what´s that spell ? ....what´s that spell ?....what´s that spell ?....Clarence Big Man Clemons on the saxophone ....”
 * 25.08.84 Largo, MD, middle of ´Rosalita´**

´´Thank you, I´d like to, I´d like to take a minute and thank everybody for coming down tonight, thank you very much.....when I....when I was a kid growing up....and I first heard the music of Elvis Presley and....I remember it....I guess the main thing it did for me was it set my mind free a little bit....I could dream a little bit bigger than I had been....and his music and the best of rock and roll always said to me ´Just let freedom ring´ and.....that´s what we´re here for tonight so but remember you gotta fight for it every day....”
 * 25.08.84 Largo, MD, intro to ´Born to Run´**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//